Arguably Sandberg is actively harming the interests of the Facebook shareholders. She is enlightened, presumably, and Facebook is thus a paradise of gender equality and female advancement. Why not stay quiet about Facebook’s methods so that the most able women will quit their jobs elsewhere and join Facebook?

Alternatively, maybe the example of Sandberg will discourage employers from hiring women. Shareholders pay a COO and she spends a lot of her time telling competitors, unrelated companies, non-profit and and government employers, etc. how to do stuff. Wouldn’t shareholders be better off hiring a boring white male that nobody outside the company wants to interview or hear from?

[Separately, would a rational reader of Sandberg’s elaborate prescription simply refrain from hiring any men? In an all-female company the managers wouldn’t have to spend 24/7 thinking about sexual harassment issues. There don’t seem to be any practical penalties for employers who discriminate against men (New York Times will even celebrate you for it!).]

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8 thoughts on “Sheryl Sandberg proves that Facebook is a monopoly?”

So maybe we should just create all-male and all-female companies. Or would it be better to use the sexual preference? I don’t want to be Kevin Spacied. What about bi-sexuals? Are they employable at all?

No, it suggests that CxOs aren’t machines following some narrow and short-term Ec10/14.01 definition of profit maximization for shareholders. (Not even the economists believe that.) It suggests that they’re aware that there are many stakeholders in a company, and to succeed you have to work with many of them productively. It suggests that corporate culture actually has some importance, and that public positions matter.

And you know what, it might even suggest that Sandberg actually thinks it’s an important issue regardless of whether talking about it makes incremental profits for Facebook. It’s sometimes hard to believe, but CxOs are not slaves of their employers.

apropos of GermanL’s suggestion — indeed, let’s see how the power grid and water/wastewater systems work under that scenario, given the low no of females in those industries. The househusbands I’ve met never seem to complain about the physical challenges of the job, but like SAHMs face challenges once they have to return to the paid workforce.